Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-07-15

the same power that impels a drown
ing man to clutch at a straw made it
wildly apparent to me that if | would
escape from that place unobserved no
time must be lost. Accordingly | made
a rush for the door and with one bound
was in the street. The devils didn't go
out with me. Hastily glancing up and
down the street and seeing no one, l
ran like a deer to the corner of Fourth
street and in another minute was at my
desk but the quality and quantity of my
work for the remainder of the night
We're not such as to justify my employ
ers in availing themselves of my serv-
ices thereafter.
"The next mornings papers contained
accounts of the murder, scrupulously ac-
curate as to description of the scene of
the tragedy, but lamentably wanting as
to circumstantiality of detail as to the &C.
currence. and conveying to me the start
ling intelligence that a man was seen run
ming out of the saloon after the shot was
fired that the police We're after him and
would no doubt have him in custody be-
fore night, and unquestionably he was
the man who did the killing. as no wea-
pom was found on the person of the bar
tender or in the saloon. Who had seen
me leave the place? Who might have
been behind the curtaia i'll the dark room
and carefully photographed my features
upon his memory as | stood in the light?
1T was not until then that l became
really frightened. There / was in a
strange town, without means of leaving
| it except in manner calculated to excite
! tcti v-alx ff
murder. \ terrible situation for man
to be in, truly, and all because | had al
lowed myself to get into such condition
of mental and physical ruin that | must
have rum, good or bad, but rum any
how.
although my nerves were very much
shattered and my general condition, aside
from my feeling of dread lest l should be
arrested, no better than it was when the
devils and l walked out of the office the
night before, the craving for liquor had
then felt had vanished, and l mentally
declared my intention of forever abstain
ing from the use of intoXicants there
after. This sort of inward preaching
didn't seem to present any way of get
ting me out of my difficulty, however,
and the more l thought of the scrape
l was in the worse it appeared. and the
only way out of it seemed to be in getting
out of town.
1.-THE accomplishment of that much
desired object without money seemed
little less problematical to me than the
acquisition of the required sum, but / lost
no time i'll formulating a scheme invOlv-
ing an excursion in any direction that
would place Cincinnati behind me, and
started out to put it in practice. After
visiting the various railroad stations and
steamboat wharves, l succeeded late in
the afternoon in striking up an acquaint-
ance with steamboat clerk, to whom
told straight story, if not true one,
and he agreed to take me to Louisville
that evening. He did So and as the boat
left the wharf a newsboy's cry reached
my ears with startling distinctness, The
police on the track of the murderer.
The police may have run down the
devils that deserted me in such cowardly
fashion that night, but they never got
the man who was seen running out of
the saloon in Walnut street, nor has that
man ever since touched drop of liquor
''If you, my moderate drinking friend
think it as easy as falling off the Brook
Ign bridge to get sober when once you It
saturated with whisky, keep ON drinking
moderately and some day you'll find out
that it isn't.
'Great Scott! It's O'Clock in the
morning. Let's have another lemonade
and must start for New Rochelle. -
Robert w. Martin in New York Times.